Edgar Allan Poe — “Eureka”

Reading and Reference Texts:

Reading copy:

“Eureka” — reading copy

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Historical Texts:

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

Text-01 — “The Universe” — written as a lecture before February 3, 1848, no original
manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably slightly reworked and recorded in Text-02) — (Poe
first delivered this lecture on February 3, 1848 at the lecture room of the Society Library, at the corner of Broadway and Leonard
Streets in New York. In the printed text, a few traces of the lecture form remain, most notably the reference to
“to-night” on page 29, which Poe marked for removal in Text-07.)

Text-02 — Eureka, A Prose Poem: Or the Physical and Metaphysical Universe — presumed revision
of the lecture in preparation for publication, completed by May 22, 1848. (The title is printed with the full subtitle in the
advertisements of the book, and was probably removed only late in preparing the title page. No manuscript fragments are known to
have survived, and the manuscript was probably destroyed during the process of typesetting. It is almost certainly reflected in
Text-03.)

Text-04 — Eureka: A Prose Poem — July 1848 — manuscript revisions in Mary Osborne
copy of Eureka (Alderman Library, University of Virginia) (This copy is incribed by Poe to Mary Osborne, and contains 10
changes in Poe’s hand. Because these changes are minor, they are noted in the appropriate sections under Text-03.)

Text-05 — Eureka: A Prose Poem — September or October 1848 — manuscript revisions
in Eureka (Sarah H. Whitman’s copy, now in the Lilly Library, Indiana University) (This copy is incribed by Poe to Mrs.
Whitman, and contains 5 changes in Poe’s hand, and one minor note by Mrs. Whitman. Because these changes are minor, they are
noted in the appropriate sections under Text-03.)

Text-06 — Eureka: A Prose Poem — early 1849 — manuscript revisions in Eureka (The Nelson-Mabbott copy of Text-03, now in the
University of Texas at Austin)

Text-07 — Eureka: A Prose Poem — summer 1849 — manuscript revisions in Poe’s own copy of Eureka (The Poe-Griswold-Hurst-Wakeman
copy of Text-03, now in a private collection)

Reprints:

“Eureka” — 1850 — WORKS — Text
R1 (Griswold essentially reprints Text-03, ignoring the revisions in Text-07. Although Griswold did have Poe’s annotated copy,
it may have come into his hands after he had already had the material prepared by the typesetter.)

Bierly, Charles E., “Eureka and the Drama of the Self: A Study of the Relationship between
Poe’s Cosomology and His Fiction,” Doctoral Disseration, University of Washinbgton, 1957 (abstract: Disseration
Abstracts, 1958, 18:228-229)

Conner, Frederick William, “Poe & John Nichol: Notes on a Source of Eureka,” in All
These to Teach: Essays in Honor of C. A. Robertson, ed. Robert A. Bryan, et al., Gainesville: University of Florida Press,
1949, pp. 190-208

Conner, Frederick William, “Poe’s Eureka: The Problem of Mechanics,” in Cosmic
Optimism: A Study of the Interpretation of Evolution by American Poets from Emerson to Robinson, Gainesville: University of
Florida Press, 1949, pp. 67-91

Wallace, Alfred, Edgar Allan Poe: A Series of Seventeen Letters Concerning Poe’s Scientific Erudition
in Eureka and His Authorship of “Leonanine,” New York: Union Square Bookshop,1930 (As it turns out, Poe was
not the author of “Leonaine,” a hoax perpetrated by James Whitcomb Riley)